by Heather on July 8, 2009
Proofreaders’ Marks
The latest in this series explaining proofreaders’ marks concerns that workhorse punctuation mark, the comma. As we all know commas go some places and not others, but—thank goodness—that’s an entry for another day.
Today’s entry is merely concerned with inserting a comma once you’ve decided you need one. We’re going to use that caret…
…again to make sure the comma goes exactly where it’s needed. Here’s what the caret and the comma look like once they’ve been mashed together:
And here’s an example of an inserted comma in action:
That red pencil still burning a hole in your pocket protector? You can find a full listing of all the Word Blog’s Proofreaders’ Marks entries here.
by Heather on June 5, 2009
Proofreaders’ Marks
Writers and editors aren’t only concerned with the ink on the page, but also with the spaces separating the ink. But how can you have a mark that denotes a lack of mark, a space? Well, you can arbitrarily assign that task to a mark that rarely appears in documents:
How to know exactly where this lovely space is supposed to go? A caret like this one is used to show just where this new space is needed:
You’ll be seeing a lot of these carets in the Proofreaders Marks entries because they’re so handy for inserting all kinds of characters. But perhaps you’re wondering how to fit these marks into a document where a space is missing—after all if there’s no space there’s no space, right? That’s where the skinny caret comes in. It’s a natural outgrowth of the caret that allows a lot of precision when editing in tight spaces:
You’ll be seeing a lot of these in these entries, too.
And here’s an example of an inserted space mark in action:
That red pencil still burning a hole in your pocket protector? You can find a full listing of all the Word Blog’s Proofreaders’ Marks entries here.
by Heather on May 24, 2009
Proofreaders’ Marks
Periods are the smallest dab of ink on the page, but they’re some of the most important marks. Without periods paragraphs become very difficult to read, discouraging readers who have to sleuth around for the beginnings and ends of sentences. And abbreviations—a.m.—start to look like words—am.
Being such tiny things, periods do occasionally wander off unnoticed, and editors who insert an equally small dot of red pencil to put them back may find that their corrections go missing in action, too. That’s where the proofreaders’ mark for inserting a period—a circled dot—comes in very handy:
And circling a comma indicates that a period should be inserted in its place:
That red pencil still burning a hole in your pocket protector? You can find a full listing of all the Word Blog’s Proofreaders’ Marks entries here.
